Post-Bubble Consolidation
2000–2007
Significance
ICANN consolidated its authority over DNS policy, establishing the accredited registrar model still in use today. New generic TLDs proved there was demand beyond .com, paving the way for the much larger new gTLD program of the following decade.
Key Events
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12월 1, 1999
Policy Change
ICANN UDRP Takes Effect
ICANN's Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy (UDRP) took effect on December 1, 1999, providing trademark holders with a faster, cheaper alternative to court litigation for recovering cybersquatted domain names. Under UDRP, …
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6월 7, 2000
Acquisition/Merger
VeriSign Acquires Network Solutions for $21 Billion
VeriSign completed its acquisition of Network Solutions Inc. on June 7, 2000, in an all-stock deal valued at approximately $21 billion at the time of announcement — making it one …
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1월 1, 2001
Policy Change
ICANN Accredited Registrar Model Launches Competition
ICANN's accredited registrar system — launched in 1999 and maturing by 2001 — broke Network Solutions' monopoly on .com registrations by allowing any qualified company to register domains directly with …
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6월 26, 2001
TLD Launch
.biz and .info Launch as New sTLDs
ICANN delegated .biz (for businesses) and .info (unrestricted) in June 2001, the first new generic TLDs added to the root zone since the original six. The launches were accompanied by …
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1월 1, 2006
Policy Change
Verisign Renews .com Registry Contract
ICANN renewed Verisign's registry agreement for .com in 2006, granting Verisign the right to operate the world's largest TLD registry through 2012 with automatic renewal provisions. The contract was controversial …
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4월 7, 2006
TLD Launch
.eu Launches as the European Union's ccTLD
The .eu country-code TLD opened for general registration on April 7, 2006, following a phased sunrise period for trademark and government registrations. Operated by EURid on behalf of the European …
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9월 26, 2006
TLD Launch
.mobi Launched for Mobile Web Optimization
ICANN delegated .mobi — sponsored by a consortium including Google, Microsoft, Nokia, Samsung, and Vodafone — in September 2006, intended as a dedicated namespace for mobile-optimized websites. At the time, …
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10월 15, 2007
Technology Change
ICANN Approves First IDN ccTLD Tests
ICANN approved the first Internationalized Domain Name (IDN) ccTLD fast-track evaluation tests in October 2007, paving the way for top-level domains written in non-Latin scripts such as Arabic, Chinese, Devanagari, …
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10월 30, 2009
ICANN Decision
IDN ccTLD Fast Track Process Launched
ICANN launched the Internationalized Domain Name ccTLD Fast Track Process on October 30, 2009, enabling countries to apply for TLDs written in non-Latin scripts such as Arabic, Chinese, Cyrillic, Devanagari, …
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7월 15, 2010
Technology Change
DNSSEC Signed at the Root Zone
ICANN and Verisign completed the cryptographic signing of the DNS root zone on July 15, 2010, deploying DNSSEC at the top of the global naming hierarchy. The root zone's signing …
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11월 17, 2010
Acquisition/Merger
sex.com Sold for $14 Million in Record-Breaking Deal
Sex.com sold for $14 million on November 17, 2010, setting a new world record for the highest publicly disclosed domain name sale price at the time. The domain had been …